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Wednesday, 9 October 2013

Good For You by Tammara Webber

About the book

Good for
You is the third book in the Between the Lines series (New Adult) by Tammara
Webber. The book was published by Penguin on 6th June and it is 400
pages long.

Plot Synopsis

After being
the cause of a dangerous car accident that nearly destroyed a house, Reid
Alexander is sentenced to community service – which is getting off lightly. In
order to carry out his time, Reid must help repair the house he nearly destroyed.
Instead of being able to breeze through the court order, Reid is assigned to
Dori, who is not at all impressed with his celebrity status and neither does
she fawn all over him like other girls.

Once Reid
has realised that this might be the one girl completely unaffected by him, he
makes it his mission to change her mind. But, getting to know Dori better has
an effect on Reid that he could have never predicted. Dori knows that deep
down, there is a good person hidden away in Reid and she intends to make him
see that but it may cost her her own secrets at the same time.

What I thought

In the new
adult genre, there tends to be a lot of books with excessive sex scenes and not
a lot of substance when it comes to the plot. Thankfully, Tammara Webber gives
us the Between The Lines series, revolving around movie stars, which is
something very different.

This third
book does not follow on exactly from books one and two but instead focuses on
Reid Alexander, a character from the previous books. Before Reid has been a
massive player who has had his ego bruised after not being able to get the girl
he so desperately wanted. After going on a bit of a downwards spiral, he
crashes a car while drunk and causes some big damage to a house. He’s sentenced
to community service which he is not pleased about, especially as it means
fixing up the house he trashed. Even though he’s been a bit of a bad boy, I
have liked Reid in the past.

Dori comes
from a family of do-gooders. Before heading off to college, she’s helping out a
group of kids, helping to rebuild a house and going off to Ecuador for a
mission trip. She’s everything Reid is not. Dori is the one who gets stuck
supervising Reid at the house and she’s dreading having to spend time with
someone as self-centred and selfish as he is. I really liked Dori because she
was a take no crap kind of girl. She doesn’t have time to waste and very much
enjoys what she does to help others. She also saw straight through Reid and
knew that he wasn’t being completely truthful with anyone.

Unlike many
other new adult books, this one has a lot going on in the plot. Not only is
there the slow building relationship between Reid and Dori but there is also a
lot going on around them. Dori thinks she knows what path she is on in life but
Reid’s influence begins to change that. Reid thinks he knows exactly who he is
but Dori brings out a completely different side to him and makes him want to be
a better person. There are also twists and turns in regards to both character’s
families. I really enjoyed that we got to know both main characters through
secondary characters such as Dori and Reid’s mothers. While I wouldn’t say the
plot was exciting, there was a lot going on and it made for a very entertaining
read.

For me, the
romance was an added bonus to a great plot. Reid and Dori aren’t characters who
fall in love instantly and there is a fabulous chase between the two. Neither
character is sure of their feelings for the other as they’re polar opposites to
begin with. I enjoyed getting to know them separately and then to watch them
both grow as they spent more time together. It really did make a nice change
for the characters to have depth and purpose, to have interesting backgrounds
and also for them both to be likeable as well. In regards to romance, this one
comes very slowly but it is extremely sweet at the same time. While there are
sex scenes, they aren’t as graphic as in other new adult novels. Tammara Webber
manages to let the reader know exactly what is going on and what the characters
are feeling without being too descriptive which was something I was very
thankful for.

Reid has
come a long way since his time with Emma in books one and two and Dori was a
wonderful addition to this series. Tammara Webber writing is extremely
addictive and she writes a plot that you don’t want to stop discovering.
Thankfully I have book four waiting to be read and I know it won’t take me long
to read the whole thing!